Observation, Modelling and Management of Urban Air Pollution

URGENT Air Project No GST/02/1981 – Duration: 1/1/1998 - 30/9/2001.

Contents

  1. Project overview
  2. People
  3. Data collection
  4. Data summaries
  5. Other related URGENT projects

1. Project overview

Objectives, methodology and other relevant information on the project can be found in the project abstract from the URGENT Central Web Site.

2. People

Lead researcher Prof. Roy M. Harrison Birmingham
Other principal investigators Dr Rodney L. Jones Cambridge
Dr Glenn McGregor Birmingham
Dr Xiaoming Cai Birmingham
Dr Stuart Penkett East Anglia, Norwich
Prof. Mike Pilling Leeds
Dr Dwayne Heard Leeds
Dr Paul Seakins Leeds
Dr Alistair Lewis Leeds
Dr Dick Derwent Met Office
Dr Derrick Ryall Met Office Atmospheric dispersion model development.
Data manager Dr Alan Turnbull Birmingham
Other team members Dr Rob Kinnersley Birmingham Project coordination
Dr Alan Turnbull Birmingham Field monitoring/lab analysis.
Miss Sarah Baggott Birmingham Model development.
Dr Lucy Carpenter Radical measurements.
Dr James Lee Leeds Radical measurements.
Mr. Jim Hopkins Leeds NMHC (*) measurements.
Ms Della Lansley Leeds Measurements from mobile lab.
Dr Ian Povey LiDAR (**) measurements.
Ms Emily Norton LiDAR (**) measurements.
Mr. Stephen Utembe Ozone distribution modelling.
Mr. Michael Sanderson Cambridge Ozone distribution.
Dr Graham Mills UEA, Norwich Measurement of organic compounds.
Dr Alison Redington Dispersion model development.
Dr Alistair Manning Model development.

(*) NMHC = Non-methane hydrocarbons.
(**) LiDAR = Light Detection And Ranging.

3. Data collection

3.1 Field campaigns

Location A dozen of urban and suburban sites in and around the West Midlands County (UK).
The principal urban site was Pritchatts Road, Birmingham City. Peripheric sites included Halfpenny Green Airport (West of Birmingham) and Withybrook Equestrian Centre (East of Birmingham).
Dates 11 June - 13 July 1999
17 January - 17 February 2000
Platforms A variety of observation platforms were used. They include two ambulant laboratories (Birmingham and Leeds teams), a pollution monitoring van and a 10 m high tower allowing measurements to be made at a height of 5 or 10 metres. Most observations were made when the platform was stationary but some data were collected while driving (peripheric sites).

Contributions of various teams: .
Birmingham, School of Geography
Glenn McGregor — Automatic weather station on 10 m tower, at various sites in and around Birmingham.
Temperature, maximum & minimum relative humidity, wind speed and direction.
Also atmospheric pressure & short-wave radiation at Pritchatts Road.
Birmingham, Institute of Public and Environmental Health (IPEH)
Alan Turnbull — Various platforms (stationary ambulant laboratory, parked pollution monitoring van, 5 m & 10 m levels of 10 m tower) at urban (Pritchatts Rd) or peripheric (Halfpenny G.A., Withybrook E.C.) sites.
O3, NO, NO2, SO2 by gas analyser. PM10 by TEOM
Rob Tilling — 5 m level of 10 m tower at Pritchatts Road, Birmingham City.
HNO2, HNO3 by sodium carbonate coated glass denuders. Cl –, NO3–, SO4=, NH4+ by polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane filters on micro-orifice uniform deposit impacter (MOUDI).
Sarah Baggott — 10 m tower at Pritchatts Road, Birmingham City.
NH3 by continuous ammonia gas analyser.
Ji Ping Shi & Aftab Khan — 10 m tower at Pritchatts Road, Birmingham City.
Condensation particle number density measured by continuous condensation particle counter; particle surface area measured by epiphaniometer.
Naomi Jones — 5 m level of 10 m tower at Pritchatts Road, Birmingham City.
PM10 & PM2.5 by TEOM.
Birmingham, IPEH + School of Geography
Alan Turnbull & Rob Kinnersley — Pollution monitoring van parked at Pritchatts Road, Birmingham City.
Temperature, wind speed & direction, relative humidity (weather station on van); O3, NOX, CO; PM10 by TEOM.
Birmingham, School of Physics and Astronomy
Jianxin Yin — 5 m level of 10 m tower at Pritchatts Road, Birmingham City.
Fine/coarse organic and elemental carbon measured by dichotomous sampler; Cl –, NO3–, SO4=, NH4+ by Partisol sampler.
Cambridge, Department of Chemistry
UEA Norwich, School of Environmental Sciences
Graham Mills — Pritchatts Road, Birmingham City.
CO, CH2O, PAN.
Leeds, School of Chemistry
Della Lansley — Ambulant laboratory (stationary or driving) at the West Midlands periphery.
Temperature, wind speed & direction, O3 by UV absorption (API 400), NO & NOX by chemiluminescence (API 200A), CO by gas filter correlation (API 300). NO2 deduced from NOX and NO.
James Lee — Pritchatts Road, Birmingham City.
J(O(1D)) by radiometer; O3 by UV spectrometry; OH by laser induced fluorescence; HO2 by conversion to OH and laser induced fluorescence; H2O by IR spectrometry.
Jim Hopkins — Pritchatts Road, Birmingham City.
Hydrocarbons by PTV-GC-FID.
Leicester, Chemistry Department
Mona Kochhar — 10 m tower at Pritchatts Road, Birmingham City.
J(O(1D)) by homemade and Metcon radiometers; J(NO2) by 2pi and 4pi radiometers.

3.2 Non-academic sources

In addition to the observation performed by the project teams, data collected over the same periods of time at thirteen urban sites in the West Midlands (Birmingham and Coventry) were provided by the Automatic Urban Network (AUN) and by local authorities (LA) and compiled by Dr A. Turnbull (Birmingham). These data include O3, NO, NO2, SO2, CO, PM10, PM2.5 and, in one case (Fox Hollies), temperature and relative humidity.

4. Data summaries

List of PUMA, AUN and LA observation sites with longitude, latitude coordinates
Clickable map of PUMA,
AUN and LA observation sites
PUMA data summary (Summer 1999 campaign)
PUMA data summary (Winter 2000 campaign)
AUN and LA data summary (Summer 1999 and Winter 2000)

5. Other related URGENT projects

GST/02/1971 A Thermal Climatology of the West Midlands
GST/02/1974 Tracers and Dispersion of Gaseous Pollutants - Study based in Birmingham
GST/02/2225 An Instrumented Aircraft Facility to Provide Vertical Profiles of Wind, Temperature, Turbulence, Sensible Heat, Aerosol and Trace-Gas Concentrations and Fluxes within the Urban Boundary Layer for PUMA Consortia Model Validation - Measurements from aircraft above the West Midlands